


The Minute and Momentous

by Vault_of_Glass



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 13:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8626057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vault_of_Glass/pseuds/Vault_of_Glass
Summary: Keyleth and Percy share a tiny moment of calm before the storm. (aka friendship fic for Kiki and Percival) | spoilers up to ep. 67 | written for the CritRole Reverse Big Bang





	

_I live as long as Whitestone lives._

Keyleth thinks back to that conversation often. It hovers at the back of her thoughts when her mind is idle and roaming; summons memories, fuzzy and dark, of their brief time in the crypt beneath Whitestone castle, when the Briarwoods had woken the dead from their rest - when the shadow of Percy’s ancestor had clouded over Keyleth’s mind and forced her to attack the people she loves. She doesn’t remember much from the harrowing experience, only the flicker of an ancient instinct, bone-deep and heavy, twisted to suit the Briarwoods’ evil purpose, but strong enough to leave an impression behind: _Protect Whitestone._

She’s beginning to think maybe Percy was born with that instinct in his soul - with Whitestone built into his bones, and every breath in his lungs. Every moment they remain away from his home, he must worry endlessly. And when his last day comes, when Percy de Rolo takes his very last breath and breaks Keyleth’s heart, that part of him will return to his home, to his brothers and sisters and the family who came before him.

Inevitably, she always remembers the edge of warmth to his tone that followed, with only the slightest trace of smugness, as they admired the Westruun child’s portrait of them after Umbrasyl’s defeat: _I can be right every now and then._

As if sensing the direction of Keyleth’s thoughts, Percy joins her at the port side of the ship (a term Pike taught her, years ago, and she still remembers the smile that brightened the gnome’s face when she did). He crosses his arms and stares out over the edge of the airship, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

Vex keeps pace beside the ship on her broom, a streak of dark shadow against the setting sun, her braid and the brim of her hat whipping in the wind. For a few hours earlier, Keyleth joined her as an eagle, enjoying the wind over her wings and a moment of mutual appreciation for the freedom in flight. It isn’t often she and Vex get any real time to themselves like that, at least not without the rest of their group hovering somewhere close by.

“Do a flip!” Grog hollers at Vex from further down the airship, his boisterous voice carrying easily over the wind and distance.

Vex zips closer to hover beside the boat and shoots him an indignant look. “Are you mad?”

“He’s _bored_ ,” her brother replies, leaning lazily against the railing. “Go on, Stubby, give it a go! Promise I’ll catch you if you fall.” He grins as his wings flare out in a flash of black feathers, just to goad her.

Vex glares at the challenge, thoroughly goaded. With a flip of her braid, she sails back to her previous position and leans lower over the broom before dipping into a swift, if somewhat shaky, forward roll, one hand clutching her hat to keep it from flying away.

Keyleth gasps, and starts a round of excited applause, which the others echo enthusiastically. Vex gives them a half-bow from her broom, smirking in pride.

“She’s getting rather good with that, isn’t she?” Percy notes with amusement. The setting sunlight glints against his glasses, hiding his eyes from view as he rests his hands on the railing.

“Saved a few of our lives with it. ” Keyleth shields her eyes against the dwindling sun to watch Vex soar effortlessly through the air. “Even if it’s stolen.”

“Yes, well.” And Percy smiles faintly, though it fades quickly to wherever it is Percy’s smiles disappear to. “She’s only ever bad for good reasons… no matter what she may think.”

His tone is soft and fond, and only Vex can add that touch of wonder to his voice like that. Watching Percy now, Keyleth wonders not for the first time what it’s _like_ in that brilliant mind of his; she suspects with growing conviction that his own thoughts trouble him most of all. “And what do _you_ think Vex thinks?”

Percy turns to face her, a twitch creasing his brow as he shakes his head. “Oh, I wouldn’t presume to know what goes through her mind. But I’ve no doubt that behind every thought is a good intention. Just as I’ve no doubt about your intentions.”

Keyleth feels herself smiling, and touches her forehead briefly to his shoulder. “It’s… different, though, right?” Next to Percy’s eloquence, her clumsy way with words always feels glaringly apparent, but he’s never given her a reason to be self-conscious. “The way you think about Vex.”

His face goes blank in utter surprise. He laughs, briefly, then falls silent for a few moments, glancing out at the distant shape of Vex’s silhouette before turning back to Keyleth at his side. “I would… rather expect that. Whatever your intentions might have in common, you’re two very different people.”

“Percy.” Keyleth frowns, disapproving. “You know what I mean.”

“Yes, I suppose I do.” He sighs, adjusting his glasses, more for something to do with his hands than out of real necessity.

“Look… you don’t have to tell me anything, obviously, if you don’t want to. I just…” She pauses, picking carefully through her words; she’s never really been good at this _giving advice_ thing, with all the time she spends asking for it. She thinks of Kerr, and the wisdom with which he guided her - the wisdom she hopes one day to command herself, when she must guide her people. She takes a deep breath. “Until very recently, I’ve been stopping myself from finding happiness, because I was scared - because I _am_ scared - of one day losing it.”

Percy waits patiently for her to finish, his expression unreadable.

“I’m trying to learn how to let myself be happy… while I can, anyways. And the time I’ve had with Vax…” Her eyes find the rogue instinctively, laughing with Grog at the other end of the airship, and a smile touches her face beneath flushed cheeks. “Those… tiny moments you were talking about, back in Westruun… Whenever I think about how I could’ve spent the rest of a thousand years without ever knowing that, I regret all the time I wasted - even if I needed it, and I’m glad he was willing to wait.”

Keyleth rests a hand against Percy’s arm and her smile softens toward sadness. She doesn’t really _talk_ about Vax, not like this, and certainly not to Percy. “You deserve more tiny moments, Percy.”

He remains silent for a few beats, tilting his head to the side as he thinks over her words, and Keyleth fears she may have overstepped before the smile slowly returns to his face. “You know, Keyleth… The Ashari are going to find themselves very lucky to follow your guidance one day.”

She blinks in surprise, rubbing at her arm; whatever reactions she’d been expecting from him, it certainly wasn’t _that_. “I… Thanks, Percy.” Her cheeks grow warmer as he pulls her into an easy hug, careful to avoid the antlers, after all the times he’s been forced to disentangle his glasses from them.

“Thank _you._ You’re looking out for me.” There’s pride to his tone now, and amusement, teasing her, and moments like these always remind her that he is very much an older brother. _Poor Cassandra._

And he is also her best friend. _Lucky me._

And as his best friend, Keyleth would have to be blind not to notice the smile Vex puts on Percy’s face, when she’s being particularly charming, or catty, or protective of their family in that fierce way she has of looking out for them all. It’s a smile unlike any other, and she’s seen many of Percy’s over the years: sometimes sad, mostly smug, very rarely almost cruel (and those times scare her more than _anything_ , when she sees that dark part of Percy she doesn’t recognize.) These smiles are deep and wide; they come easily to his face, and he looks almost _tired_ , like she’s bought him some small, breathless moment of peace from the worries that normally plague him.

Keyleth wants that peace for him all the time. And maybe it’s a little weird that their tastes in romantic partner are… strangely similar (okay, literally _identical_ ) but she’s willing to awkwardly laugh that off if he is. Besides, she rather likes having something else in common with Percy, for all their differences; an affection for stealthy half-elves would make an appropriately strange addition to the list (she has it actually written down somewhere, in the pages of her notes.) Their family is strange, and perfect, and trouble more often than not, and if Keyleth should die fighting at their side, she thinks she could accept that fate.

Because Vox Machina’s journey has been an unending tide of fateful moments, both minute and momentous. Keyleth remembers every song Scanlan’s ever sung her in the heat of battle, every limerick and innuendo that made her blush; all the times she and Grog have fought back to back, earth elemental and goliath, flinging each other at their foes. Pike’s unwavering smile, the sun that lights their path, and Vex the stars that guide them. (Without her mother, Keyleth suffered a great absence of strong women in her life before she had Vox Machina; she hopes someday to shine as brightly as they do.) And _Vax_ \- Vax who gave her his heart, who’s thrown himself headfirst into danger and his deepest fears to protect her, who kisses her like she might disappear right from his arms.

Percy holding her circlet steady for her, gently, like something divine in his hands, as he watched her druidcraft the flowers that adorn them; braving the stifling heat of his forge to help him bring his visions to life; skywriting shapes into the clouds to pass the time; all the hours studying together; eating at the other’s side; fighting and bleeding and emerging victorious over countless battlefields. Storming Whitestone to reclaim his city, his sister, his _soul_ , and she would do it for him a thousand times over again. They all would.

Whenever the immensity of the centuries that face her or the looming danger in their near future threaten to darken her day, memories like these ward the anxious weight away. Dying surrounded by her family would be a comforting fate; sometimes, she envies the rest of them that chance. But she’s beginning to realize if she _is_ to live on without them, she will find ways to remember them, as she watches the ages pass.

“I’ll look after Whitestone,” Keyleth promises him abruptly. She doesn’t add the obvious: _if we survive this storm, and the upcoming battle, and the Chroma Conclave_ , or any other context, really, but she doesn’t need to.

Percy understands. “Thank you,” he says again, quieter this time, heavy with something like exhaustion. Then, “Going to miss me that much, are you?”

She rolls her eyes and shoves at him with her elbow. “You _know_ I will,” she grumbles. “Just like you know everything.”

“Oh, Keyleth.” And Percy laughs, a genuine laugh from deep in his belly as he shakes his head. “Just because I’m right every now and then doesn’t mean I’m never wrong. In fact, I’m probably more often wrong than right. But that’s why we need you… why I need you especially. Somebody needs to see things the way they are, and keep us honest.”

Keyleth smiles brightly. “So you’ll take my advice, then,” and casts a pointed glance out at Vex. “Because the way _I_ see it, you could be a little more honest about some things.”

Percy rubs at the back of his neck. “I’ll do my best.” Evasive but heartfelt, Percy de Rolo in three short words, and they all dearly love him for it. “Thank you, Keyleth, for keeping an eye on me. And for all our tiny moments.”

He pictures Whitestone a few hundred years down the line, bustling and prosperous and peaceful while he rests with his family under the earth, and Keyleth’s wise, watchful gaze, seeing the city safe when she passes through, pressing a slender hand to the bark of the Sun Tree, and thinking back to tiny moments.

Percy smiles, and squeezes that hand briefly in his own. “I look forward to many more.”

**Author's Note:**

> Entirely inspired by [this wonderful fanart](http://vaultie-glass.tumblr.com/post/153492210324/the-minute-and-momentous-artist-applecake) by [applecake art](http://applecakeart.tumblr.com/) for the CR reverse big bang. A thousand thanks to the artist for allowing me to write for them, and explore all the Percy / Keyleth friendship feels that hit me every Thursday night. I think about Keyleth outliving Vox Machina way too often OTL

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Minute and Momentous [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13199049) by [blackglass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackglass/pseuds/blackglass)




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